The proposed law to permit suing foreign nations in American courts was, as reported by BloombergPolitics, passed by Congress, vetoed by the Administration, and the veto immediately overridden. And now it’s already in use:
A woman widowed when her husband was killed at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001 sued the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia just two days after Congress enacted legislation allowing Americans to sue foreign governments for allegedly playing a role in terrorist attacks on U.S. soil.
Stephanie Ross DeSimone alleged the kingdom provided material support to al Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden, in a complaint filed Friday at a U.S. court in Washington. Her suit is also filed on behalf of the couple’s daughter. DeSimone was pregnant when Navy Commander Patrick Dunn was killed.
Fifteen of the 19 men who hijacked airliners used in the attack were Saudi nationals.
And, as BloombergPolitics reports in another article, now we have buyers’ remorse:
The two top Republicans in Congress said they’re prepared to rewrite legislation allowing victims of the Sept. 11 attacks to sue Saudi Arabia — less than 24 hours after Congress took the extraordinary step of overriding President Barack Obama’s veto of the measure to make it law.
Both House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that the measure could have unintended consequences — including the fact that it could leave U.S. soldiers open to retaliation by foreign governments.
“I would like to think there’s a way we can fix so that our service members do not have legal problems overseas while still protecting the rights of the 9/11 victims,” Ryan told reporters Thursday, one day after his chamber voted 348-77 to override the veto.
BloombergPolitics further notes Congress had been warned by the President:
Before the vote, senior administration officials warned lawmakers of this exact problem — that weakening the concept of sovereign immunity could backfire if foreign countries tried to do the same for the U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter sent House Armed Services Chairman Mac Thornberry of Texas a letter saying that could potentially expose Americans to lawsuits and “an intrusive discovery process” even if the U.S. is ultimately found not to be responsible for a particular event.But Republicans said the White House didn’t make a forceful case, putting themselves in the awkward position of blaming the president for a bill they enacted into law over Obama’s veto.
The GOP just looks like a pack of amateurs who act on their feelings – not their heads. They don’t like experts and don’t like being told what might occur. Now they may have put Armed Forces members at risk. And this time at least some of the Democrats may have been part of the mistake.
Remember when Pelosi ran a relatively placid House and Reid kept the Senate together, even in the face of GOP vociferousness? Current Senate leader McConnell carefully does what he’s told, while former Speaker Boehner resigned from the House for being too civilized. I actually miss him. Current Speaker Ryan runs a sloppy ship, from all appearances, and I doubt the GOP does much to help him.
